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Daring Bakers: Kumquat Tian

If I should ever loose track of time or forget what time of month it is – it’s the Daring Bakers’ challenges that always remind me exactly in which time frame I am in. It comes around like clockwork and considering the fact that I have been a part of the group for four years (next month), there is not only a certain routine but also that perfect sense of organization that I truly find relaxing.

Yes – relaxing! It was not always like that though. I remember in the beginning there were quite a few challenges that really threw me off and put me in a slight panic. However, after realizing that panic brings chaos I have begun to take things more lightly.

Light and divine was this month’s challenge. I have to admit that when Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings published the challenge on the Daring Kitchen, inspiration failed me. As I played with the idea, however I began to get more inspired. Jennifer wanted us to make an orange tian.

Tians can be made of a variety of ingredients and in all sorts of flavors. Composed in layers one can make savory and sweet deserts and the possibilities are immense.

The orange tian for the challenge was composed using a pâte sabléewith orange marmalade, a flavored whipped cream topped with fresh orange segments and served with a caramel and orange sauce. The dessert is built upside down and then unmolded so that the bottom layer (the orange segments) becomes the top layer.

I did tweak the recipe slightly and just took the freedom of trying out a few things. I stuck to the pâte sablée recipe given. It was easy and fairly delicious.

A pâte sablée is made with butter, flour or powdered almonds, butter, egg, sugar and flavored with vanilla. It has more calories than a pâte brisée or pâte sucrée and the most flavor. I do not have to tell you that it’s my favorite kind of crust for all the wrong reasons!

Instead going with a marmalade I did something slightly different. I had bought close to a truck- load of kumquats and decided to use it for the challenge. I basically boiled the kumquats, then once they were soft I transferred the fruit to a food processor and gave it a quick whizz, making a kind of fruit pulp, which was simply delectable for the dessert.

I also halved the whip cream and added an equal amount of quark for more body and a slightly tangier flavor. I love quark based desserts as it offers a wonderful texture and in the tian it was just the perfect complementary ingredient.

Finally, I made candied thyme kumquats, which did two things for me. I could skip the caramel making as the syrup from the fruit would be a sweet substitute and I did not layer the fruit at the bottom, instead started with the quark-cream mixture and once I unmolded the tian arranged the candied thyme kumquats on top. The main reason was fairly simple and logical – I did not want the sticky citrus fruit sticking on the paper!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

The recipe below is the one with my tweaks, but you’ll find the original recipe for this challenge here.

Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C (350 F).

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

Ingredients

For the Kumquat Fruit Pulp:

350g kumquats
1-2 tablespoons muscovado sugar

Method

Blanch the kumquats in some water for a few minutes. Then drain. Fill the saucepan with more water and bring to a boil.

Place the kumquats in the saucepan and cook until the citrus fruit are fairly soft approx. 25-30 minutes.

Transfer the fruit to a food processor add the sugar and give it a whizz. The pulp will be thick with bits of zest and simply delicious. If you find any pips remove them but generally the pips of a kumquat can be eaten.

Set aside to cool. This makes more than you will actually need but you can store it in jars and use it as a basis for several other desserts and toppings.

In a small bowl, add the gelatin and hot water, stirring well until the gelatin dissolves. Let the gelatin cool to room temperature while you make the quark-whipped cream.

Pour the cream into a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream.

Add the cooled gelatin slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks.

Using a rubber spatula fold in the quark gently. Transfer the quark cream to a bowl and fold in the kumquat fruit pulp.

Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.

Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 dessert rings onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Have the kumquat fruit pulp, quark cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Spoon a few spoonfuls of quark cream into the dessert rings and gently spread it so that it fills the dessert ring in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.

Then spread a few spoonfuls of fruit pulp in an even layer on top of the quark cream. .

Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring and gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10-15 minutes.

Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the dessert rings to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the dessert rings, arrange the candied thyme kumquats on top of the quark cream and spoon a few spoonfuls of syrup over the top. Serve immediately.

Food Guide

Have a browse through my Food Guide section on the sidebar. You’ll find several brilliant tips, tricks, know-hows and food facts.

This was a very simple dessert really whipped up in no time. I had made the candied thyme kumquats a few days ahead, which gave it time for all the flavors to intermingle beautifully. All the other elements I made on the same day. It was a light refreshing treat that both Soeren and I enjoyed in the middle of the week. Ever since Tom started work in Vienna and is based during the week there I try to think of special highlights to sweeten Soeren’s week. Sometimes it’s with a DVD and popcorn other times it’s a little dessert like this. We both really enjoyed but both contemplated the fact that it would have been even better if we had added chocolate to the quark cream. The flavors of the sweet and herby candied fruit paired with the lovely fruit pulp provided a real burst of flavors. There were wonderful textures in each element of this challenge, harmonizing wonderfully in one dessert. As I mentioned before the possibilities to the several varieties and flavors for this dessert are near to endless.

I thank Jennifer for a great challenge and for being a wonderful hostess.

Hope you’ll all join me next week as I countdown to Easter with a couple of mouthwatering creations. I am off for the weekend and wish you all a happy and sunny weekend!

You might like these delicious Daring Bakers’ ideas for Easter from WFLH:

46 comments:

That looks gorgeous! The candied kumquats look amazing. They can be difficult to find here, so I'm a little bit jealous:)The thyme sounds good--I've never tried it, but I love rosemary with citrus, so I'm sure I'd love this too. Nice job!

Meeta - I love what you did with this challenge. I did not plan to venture away from the posted recipe since i thought it was very complicated but was pleasantly surprised when I managed to make all the components in about 90 minutes! I will definitely be making this again dnd experimenting with flavours etc.. Bravo on this - you did a great job!

I always say I'm going to make something with kumquats but haven't yet. I love this somewhat savory version of the dessert, as I found the original to be too sweet. And I enjoyed learning about quark so thanks for that!

These are so beautiful and impressive. What a lovely dessert for a party! And kumquats are so much fun. I just made a huge pile of candied kumquats last night to serve with chocolate cake, and have a ton leftover. Maybe I'll make your beautiful tian!

I was thinking of doing something with a kumquat for my tian, but I've never worked with them and they uhh..kinda scare for me some reason..evil, tiny orange 'mini-me's'..lol Your kumquat tians are gorgeous..absolutely stunning, but I knew I would be in for a treat when I saw your entry :)

This looks so delicious Meeta! I totally missed the Daring Bakers this month, although I am actually making it today.. The good part is that I get to peak at others first and get inspiration from there. Love your kumquats here!

Thank you for visiting What's For Lunch, Honey? and taking time to browse through my recipes, listen to my ramblings and enjoy my photographs. I appreciate all your comments, feedback and input. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and respond to your comments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy your stay here and that I was able to make this an experience for your senses.

Hello, I am Meeta a freelance food photographer, stylist and writer living in the cuturally rich city of Weimar, Germany with my husband and our son, where I enjoy preparing multi-cultural home cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients. What's for lunch, Honey? is my award winning food blog where I combine my love for food with my love for photography and styling...